The message of the departure of Wortmann was apparently pushed through contrary to internal agreements to the media. Among other things, the online edition of the daily newspaper “Die Welt” reports on the process. The departure of Wortmann at BMW is at least noteworthy – the top manager is in a number of top talent, who have turned the Bayern in recent years, the back. Spicy: Quite obviously, Wortmann goes to direct competition.

Many departures

Just like Herbert Diess , who did not change to a premium competitor after all. At the beginning of 2015, former BMW development chief Herbert Diess announced that he would join Volkswagen in mid-2015 , where he has been CEO since April 2018. Also in 2015, the head of development at BMW M GmbH, Albert Biermann, joined the company after more than 30 years to establish the sports label “N” at Hyundai . Since December 2018, Biermann heads research and development at Kia’s mother Hyundai . Biermann has never made a secret of the fact that he contributes to the working atmosphereBMW at the end, cautiously expressed, not optimal. In 2015, i8 project manager Carsten Breitfeld and i8 designer Benoit Jacob BMW left for the Chinese Future Mobility Corporation ( FMC ). Breitfeld is now co-founder and CEO of the FCM car brand Byton. Jacob is head designer there. Car motor und sport spoke at length to Moove, the new mobility podcast, with Carsten Breitfeld .

Also, the electric powertrain developer Dirk Abendroth and the i-product manager Henrik Wenders changed in the time to FCM. In July 2016, mini-design chief Anders Warming took his hat after almost 20 years to hire the Chinese manufacturer Borgward . In early 2017, the head of design of the brand BMW Karim Habib stopped and went to the Nissan subsidiary Infiniti . In July 2018 then the next big blow: BMW purchasing director Markus Duesmann changes to VW and is since then acted as a possible Audi chief. A competition clause binds Duesmann for some time to BMWHow long this time ends up seems to be a matter of negotiation.

Remains probably true to the industry

With Hildegard Wortmann is one of the few women in the BMW leadership. Coming as marketing director of Calvin Klein , she started her job in 1998 in Munich. From 2010 to 2018, she headed the Product Management Automobile and Aftersales, and in mid-2016 she additionally assumed worldwide responsibility for the BMW brand, since early 2018, she is Senior Vice President Asia Pacific – a career springboard, as it turns out. Rumor has it that the manager, much appreciated by her staff, was hurled out by a direct competitor – possibly on a boardroom post. At the request of the world, an audiophile said that they do not comment on such personal data and that employees should not hear such decisions from the press – which is anything but a denial. Should Wortmann actually go to Ingolstadt, Audi will rub his hands over the change. Wortmann itself is currently not available for inquiries.

It is unclear why BMW with Wortmann could not keep one of the highest-ranking female managers after 20 years of successful work. The leaked information could be an indication that after the many departures in the past three years, the chairs in the BMW leadership floor is not yet finished. Presumably, the atmosphere is correspondingly tense. Some people will ask themselves the question: who is going next?